


Arachnophobia

by StarlightXNightmare



Series: Bendy and the Ink Machine [8]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Based on a True Experience, Spiders, Swearing, but because he's finding every other spider, can i get a rip in the chat???, fuck that, grant has arachnophobia, grant won't find and kill that spider unless I find and kill the one I encountered, killing of families, not because he found the spider though, not like I want to encounter that creature again, oh look it continued, poor Grant, spider egg sac, spider murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:08:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightXNightmare/pseuds/StarlightXNightmare
Summary: Grant finds a spider in his office.





	1. Escape

**Author's Note:**

> I think it's a generally common headcanon that Grant has arachnophobia, so here you all are.

Grant groaned as he slouched forward, head cradled in his hands as his elbows rested on his desk. Fingers massaging his temples, he forced himself to look down at the bill that had been sent in after Joey had bought all the parts for the Ink Machine. Just looking at the price made him feel lightheaded—from anger or exasperation he didn't know. 

To be fair, he could've gotten this out of the way earlier—the mail _had_ been dropped off at 3pm after all. But Grant knew better. He knew if he looked at the bill that had been dropped off at his desk by Wally, he was going to get _angry_ —angry enough to at least storm out of his office and find Joey. Which is why he saved opening the bill until he had all of his leftover work done from when he had been in the hospital and everyone was gone though... while everyone was gone, he was practically delirious from sleep deprivation. What was this? His second... third night without sleep?

Tax season was the fucking _worst_.

After taking a moment for his sleep addled mind to process just how much Joey spent on building that infernal, positively _useless_ Ink Machine, he could feel rage violently bubbling underneath his skin. He took in a shuddering breath, dragging his hands down his face before shoving his chair back from his desk forcefully, fully intending to get up and pace the room, however when he turned to do so he froze, all muscles locking into place.

Across his office, sitting atop a pile of papers he had angrily thrown an hour or two back was a spider. And not just any spider: it was a _huge_ spider.

His tired brown eyes went wide behind his glasses as his mouth flapped open and closed silently. Surprisingly, he didn't scream unlike all the other times—which was annoying, because he screamed all the other times when there were actually other _people_ in the building though it was probably the reason no one would come to help him since the building was empty now. Instead of his signature high-pitched scream, the whispered words of: "Why...? Why do you exist?" fell from his mouth.

The thing was probably the size of half his palm but there was _no way in hell_ he was going to confirm that. It was everything he feared in a spider: long legs, relatively big in size, and just the _right_ color that it could easily blend in with the wooden boards if it moved off the paper. Worse yet, the people who normally came in to his office to hill the spiders—Wally, Thomas, or Shawn—were all gone until morning. He was going to have to do this himself.

Keeping his eyes on the spider, he deduced the best—and quickest—way to kill it. A tissue wasn't going to cut it for any spider, let alone one this big; there was no way in hell he was getting _that_ close to that creature with a flimsy piece of condensed paper pulp. He would probably be able to feel it squish if he did that. The thought alone was enough to make him shudder.

He vaguely considered throwing an inkwell at the arachnid but thought better of it. Firstly there was still ink in there and he didn't want to destroy any papers he had over there (not like he'd ever touch those papers again after that spider was on it). Second of all, if he missed and it startled the spider enough to bolt then he'd lose track of it eventually and he'd never be able to step foot into his office again.

He had only _one_ option.

He crouched down awkwardly, keeping his eye on the spider while wedging his finger in his shoe and popping it off. Armed with his shoe in one hand, he slowly crept closer to the spider. Now he'd have to wait for the spider to crawl off the stack of papers—those were important; he couldn't have spider guts all over that. Or... he could...

He edged as close to the eight-legged thing as he was mentally comfortable with (which was admittedly much closer than he'd ever allow if someone else could kill it for him), refusing to let the spider out of his sight for a moment as he inched the shoe closer and closer to the stack of paper shakily, halting every now and then when the spider twitched. He stopped for a moment, muscles tensing as the spider crept forward a bit. After the movement had been made, he found it impossible to continue with his task.

_Come on... **.** Just reach a little further and move the paper... then you can smash it... **.**  What are you: ten? Remember: it's more scared of you than you are of it... It's just a little, itty-bitty, completely harmless—_

He flicked a paper a little ways behind the spider up by the corner with the shoe. The spider skitted forward, spindly legs pumping as the creature raced forwards. Grant screamed, falling back and scrambling backwards to the safety of his desk as the spider moved towards him. He ended up slamming into the furniture, back and head striking the wood painfully. He shrieked as the spider kept moving in his direction, pulling himself up and crawling onto the desk. His eyes barely caught the flash of brown passing underneath the desk.

His heartbeat had rocketed from the sudden movement of the spider and his breathing had picked up significantly, growing heavy as he gasped. His hands trembled violently, threatening to drop the shoe in his hand. Every time he blinked, an image of an eight-legged creature was conjured, making him cower and swallow hard, his spine pressed uncomfortably against the wall. He swore he could feel spiders dancing along his body, the sensation causing him to writhe and bring his free hand up to scratch at the phantom touches. His eyes remained glued to the spot where he saw the spider last, body tense as he waited for the creature to emerge from its hiding place.

Minutes ticked by slowly as Grant held onto his shoe for dear life, waiting for the arachnid to crawl out from under the desk, eyes scanning the wood intently for any inconsistency in the brown floorboards. In that time, his breathing and heartbeat evened out back to their normal pace, and his muscles relaxed. The overwhelming fear had faded into more of a feeling of anticipation and anxiety.

Ignoring his near death experience, Grant knew what he had to do—the spider was too cowardly to reveal its fanged, eight-eyed face after he had so heroically attacked it, so he was going to have to be the bigger animal.

Swallowing hard, he swung his feet over the edge of the desk and pushed himself as far away from under the desk as possible before whirling around, shoe raised above his head—

_What—_

He squinted and searched the brown boards for any unusual spots. There was no spider under the desk.

_What the fuck—_

He checked cautiously under the desk. Nothing.

_Where...?_

He shimmied the desk away from the walls and checked the side of the desk. No spider.

_Where did it go!?_

He searched every inch of his office—floor, walls, ceiling, under stacks of papers, out in the hall—and found _nothing_.

_Nope. No. Can't do this. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never. Never ever. I'm too tired for this. How am I supposed to sleep in my office with that... that... monstrosity hiding somewhere in the building, ready to suck my blood out like a straw—_

As fast as he could, Grant gathered up his things—shaking off every paper and shaking out his jacket—and left. He slept for the first time in days at his own house, even if it was only for two or three hours. 

He never did find out where that spider went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found a wolf spider in my bathroom at 3:30 am. While I do not possess the same levels of arachnophobia as Grant does, I'm highly uncomfortable around spiders. My Mom and brother were both sleeping and I thought it'd be inconsiderate to scream like I was being murdered and wake them up. I watched it for a couple minutes, and it slipped out of the bathroom between the crack in the door. I went to the bathroom, prepared myself to find the creature, and walked out into the hallway... It was gone. I couldn't find it. I was paranoid for the rest of the time I was awake and I still am now. I didn't even get the liberty of having a shoe like Grant did. I wasn't getting close enough to a thing that size with a tissue and last time I threw something at a spider it escaped. All of Grant's thoughts were my own though his reaction was exaggerated (I was in a smaller space than he was). I did bump into the cabinets and apparently my Mom was awake and heard that so... That's how this story was created.


	2. Cursed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It appears as if Grant's cursed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never found the spider but I became cursed by its survival.

It was a bad week for Grant after that day. That night when he crashed on his own bed for the first time in days, he had a nightmare. Said nightmare involved large, aggressive spiders the size of a chihuahua in a cramped attic. When he woke up at 6 am (he overslept), he couldn't get back to sleep—every time he closed his eyes, spiders would appear in his mind's eye, and the ticklish feeling of bugs moving over his skin forced his eyes open and made him compulsively check to make sure there were indeed no bugs on him.

That morning he had been paranoid as he got ready to go in for work—checking his bag, papers, and jacket to make sure he hadn't missed any the first time and that the spider hadn't stowed away. He had been on edge all morning, sneaking glances at the ground and walls to make sure there was no arachnid anywhere near him.

Things only got worse when he walked through a spider web when leaving his porch. He impulsively checked himself to make sure no spider was on him only to find that a small jumping spider was in fact clinging to his suit jacket. He would forever deny it but he had shrieked and swiped it away, face burning in embarrassment as he discreetly checked no neighbors had seen the display.

As he entered Joey Drew Studios, he walked through another spider web—thankfully this one having no resident sitting in it. However he could still feel the sticky silk clinging to his face and hair even when he made sure he brushed and picked it away.

Not only did he walk through every spider's web, he was overtly aware of every spider in existence it seemed. He found them in places he frequented every day and it made him uneasy just how many of the little creatures were in such a small radius. There were an uncomfortable amount on his porch and between his porch and front door.

He became hyper aware of when he was about to walk into a spider web, barely feeling the silky substace him his skin before backpeddling furiously and trying to catch the sun's glint in the web. He then took every measure to duck under or sidestep the web. Once he nearly walked right into a spider web clinging to a small evergreen tree that had quite a large spider smack dab in the middle of it. 

It appeared as if seeing that one wolf spider in his office and failing to kill it brought all these other unfortunate events upon him. No matter how hard he tried, he always seemed to encounter another spider every day. It was like he was cursed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is based on true events. Everything that happened to Grant happened to me. I left details out about the nightmare but essentially I was forced to get married to some anime looking girl or whatever (it might've been Sayori from DDLC [please don't ask, I don't know]) and my sisters were the maids helping us get into our outfits in the attic. I was complaining about having to wear a dress and my soon-to-be wearing a tux when these huge spiders lept at my sisters. They killed them but that was when I realized the attic was absolutely infested with the creatures—big and small. I nearly crushed one under my barefoot and walked into one of their webs. They called them some weird scientific name and then said "most people know them by anal recluses" and then I woke up at 6 am (I normally wake up from anywhere between 10 AM and 2 PM) and had to check the internet to make sure they weren't real. I couldn't sleep after that. But yeah, I became hyper aware of every spider in existence and walked into about every spider web imaginable. Fucking spiders man.


	3. Generations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grant wasn't sure what compelled him to clean out the drawers in his desk but he wanted to meet God himself and thank him, though it was probably just his compulsive need to have everything reorganized after not having any time to do so in so long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For once this spider experience isn't mine! :D Shoutout to KyeAbove for sharing her spider experience with me.

Grant wasn't sure what compelled him to clean out the drawers in his desk but he wanted to meet God himself and thank him, though it was probably just his compulsive need to have everything reorganized after not having any time to do so in so long.

He had been cleaning out the drawers he used daily, rearranging the items inside meticulously and throwing things he didn't use or need into the waste bin when he felt the sudden urge to clean out the drawers he didn't use anymore—ones that were pretty empty other than the inkwells and bottles of paint he stored in there. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the extra space once he moved all the inkwells onto the shelves that lined the office and the paint into the community storage room but it was going to be a great feeling to have extra space in his desk for whatever he'd need it for next.

He pulled open one of the bottom drawers, cringing when he felt the strain it put on his back—no wonder he didn't use the bottom drawers for anything important anymore. His brain ceased functioning when he stared down into the drawer. He fought the urge to scream, taking a deep breath before pushing the drawer back in. He grabbed the walkie talkie on his desk and held the button down.

"Wally, do you have any bug killer I can borrow? Cleaning solution would work just as well."

A crackle burst from the brick before: "I'm _pretty_ sure we don't have bug killer, but I'll check anyways."

Another voice joined the conversation. "Did you really just find another spider? Ever since you let that last one escape, they've been out for you."

Grant sighed before pressing the button down. "No one asked for your input, Shawn."

"No one asked for your input, Shawn." He parroted.

Wally beat Shawn to answering first. "We have no bug killer but we have plenty of cleaning solution. Would you like that?"

"Yes, please."

A few minutes and a knock on the door later, Wally entered his office with a can of cleaning solution. "Where is it?"

Grant stared at him as he pulled the desk drawer open.

"That's really unfortunate there, pal." Wally said as he walked closer. "Is that an egg—"

"Yes, yes it is." Grant cut in. "Kill it."

Wally made a small noise before speaking, sounding scandalized at the demand. "You're just going to make me murder the whole family?"

"No one's making you do anything," Grant said, snatching the can away from the boy. He made sure the nozzle was pointing the right way before pressing down on the button.

The reaction was instantaneous.

The spider freaked out—speeding this way and that inside the drawer as the cleaning solution bubbled and fizzed up. He aimed the can this way and that when the spider tried to climb up the walls of the drawer to escape. With passing time the spider's frantic movements slowed. Soon enough, the spider was curling into a ball. He kept spraying it with the solution until it stopped twitching.

Now that the spider was taken care of, Grant could focus on the egg sac.

He turned the can to the egg sac and sprayed it for a solid minute, shuddering as he swore the silk crawled with the spiderlings underneath.  Once Wally made a strangled noise showing how panicked he was at how much cleaning solution Grant was using he tossed the can back to him. Pulling the desk drawer out with ease, he also handed that to Wally.

"Please get rid of it."

The janitor regarded him with confusion, peering into the desk drawer. "The spider and egg sac or the drawer?"

"Preferably both, though if you can clean the drawer out well enough then I'll accept it back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You bet the employees at Joey Drew Studios are children over the walkies.


	4. Avoidance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn't even something bad—it was good actually. Joey Drew Studios had been hired to animate a short part of Charlotte's Web. It was some collaboration of animation studios across America and their seven minute clip would be one of many to make up the movie. The inside of the studio was absolutely plastered with posters of the friendly spider helper, especially in the animation and music department—more so the former than the latter.
> 
> While the whole studio was buzzing with excitement and trepidation, Grant was just uncomfortable by the whole scenario.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to KyeAbove on Ao3 and their Tumblr account @kyeabove for the idea of Joey Drew getting commissioned to do an animated spider show/movie/clip.

It wasn't even something bad—it was good actually. Joey Drew Studios had been hired to animate a short part of Charlotte's Web. It was some collaboration of animation studios across America and their seven minute clip would be one of many to make up the movie. The inside of the studio was absolutely plastered with posters of the friendly spider helper, especially in the animation and music department—more so the former than the latter.

While the whole studio was buzzing with excitement and trepidation, Grant was just uncomfortable by the whole scenario.

His office was several levels lower than the other two departments (thank God), however that didn't mean a few of the posters hadn't been hung up down here as well. He wasn't sure who exactly did it, but it was probably one of the workers who liked to make fun of him for his fear of the creatures that had hung up several different posters on his door. He had torn them all down the moment he saw them but the next day there were more in their absence. The more he tore them down, the more seemed to appear until he just stopped trying, "innocently" drawn spider posters covering every inch of his door, the frame, and the walls around the two. (Thankfully after three weeks of having those posters taped to his door, Thomas had found out what was up and tore them off and threatened the other workers. No new posters showed up after that.)

He walked into work staring at anything other than the posters advertising the new project, often times looking at his own shoes or focusing on reaching his destination—the elevator. He learned to unlock his office with his eyes closed and didn't open them until he shut the door. He avoided the animation and music departments as much as humanly possible, only going down there when he absolutely needed to; if something had to be passed down he'd just ask someone to deliver the message or he'd just drop it off in Henry's or Sammy's mailbox at the front desk depending on which department it was going to.

Seeing even a "friendly" drawn spider was enough to make him deeply uncomfortable, his skin crawling and images of eight legged demons in his mind's eye whenever he blinked. It was enough to crank his paranoia levels up to an eleven, forcing him to routinely check his office and desk for crawlies and look down at the wooden drawers to make sure there wasn't another spider three inches—and quickly closing the gap—from his arm. Sometimes he even swears he saw a spider out of the corner of his eye clinging to the side of his desk or scurrying across the floor. The fact that he was told by one of the employees that made fun of his fear—that there were probably hundreds of spiders in this building alone—only kicked the paranoia from an eleven to a nineteen.

Even worse though was that this was a side project for the whole studio, the animators only working on their piece of the movie when they finished up that week's Bendy cartoon and the rough pans and sketches for the next. That meant this whole thing went on for a solid two or three months.

Once they had finished up the project, Grant skipped the screening of what the studio had created—Joey himself was merciful enough to let him skip but even his boss couldn't force him to sit through a seven minute clip of an animated spider movie. He holed up in his office and worked on his math in peace.

It took another week to have most the posters taken down and even then some remained. While it took about a full year for more posters to appear to create hype for the movie appearing in theaters, Grant couldn't help but repeat the same process as before. No matter how many times he saw those posters, he shuddered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More on that spider three inches from Grant's arm next.

**Author's Note:**

> I found a wolf spider in my bathroom at 3:30 am. While I do not possess the same levels of arachnophobia as Grant does, I'm highly uncomfortable around spiders. My Mom and brother were both sleeping and I thought it'd be inconsiderate to scream like I was being murdered and wake them up. I watched it for a couple minutes, and it slipped out of the bathroom between the crack in the door. I went to the bathroom, prepared myself to find the creature, and walked out into the hallway... It was gone. I couldn't find it. I was paranoid for the rest of the time I was awake and I still am now. I didn't even get the liberty of having a shoe like Grant did. I wasn't getting close enough to a thing that size with a tissue and last time I threw something at a spider it escaped. All of Grant's thoughts were my own though his reaction was exaggerated (I was in a smaller space than he was). I did bump into the cabinets and apparently my Mom was awake and heard that so... That's how this story was created.


End file.
